Jackie Lee Houston Shining Stars July 2014

This program rewards individuals that go above and beyond their job responsibilities in exemplifying one of our supporting commitments. These commitments are Growth, Clinical Excellence, Courtesy and Caring, Partners, Healing Environment, Efficiency and Resource Stewardship.

GROWTH

AWARDED TO: Kevin L. ColeRECOGNIZED BY: Paul Rinnander

SITUATION/TASK: A patient called to compliment Kevin on his professionalism and courtesy. She had a bad experience at a different facility up North when having the same test completed.

ACTION: The patient stated that Kevin was informative and understandable at the same time. She said Kevin is a jewel and we are lucky to have him. She also said she had a choice of hospitals to go to and she is glad she chose Eisenhower Medical Center.

RESULT: The patient has chosen Eisenhower Medical Center as her hospital due to Kevin’s outstanding professionalism and caring attitude.

COURTESY/CARING

SITUATION/TASK: We had a patient come in who had found a lump in her breast. She was very agitated and said she had called her doctor who was on vacation and couldn’t wait that long to be checked. She was very upset. We tried to help her and she stormed out.

ACTION: Instead of just leaving it alone, Daisy called the doctor’s office to see if there was a doctor who was taking care Dr. Garcia’s patient’s while she was away. Turned out the doctor was in the office. The patient had called the incorrect doctor’s office. So Louisiana ran up to the mammogram office to see if the patient had gone up there. While she was up there she saw that the lady was getting in her car and ran after her. She caught up with her before she pulled out of the parking lot and informed her that her doctor was in fact in town and that she could call them to make an appointment or to go on over. When she came back to the office Daisy spoke with her and then she called the doctor’s office to tell them that the patient was on her way.

RESULT: The patient was given the care she needed by two workers who went above and beyond!! Since the patient had left most people would have stopped there. However, between the two of them the doctor was called and informed of what was happening and the patient was taken care of. Teamwork!!

SITUATION/TASK: An obese patient was scheduled to arrive to Dolores Hope for labs at 11a.m., one day. Because the patient is very large and disabled, two 24/7 nurses were slated to arrive to the lab to assist the patient. Unbeknownst to the 24/7 staff, the patient arrived one hour earlier than planned.

ACTION: Upon my arrival to Dolores hope lab, I found two registration clerks physically assisting the patient out of his car. One of them was inside the car providing a slight push/nudge to assist the patient up and out. The other clerk was by the car door pulling the patient forward. In a hundred degree weather, the clerks were covered with perspiration. While the patient is extremely challenging, the clerks were treating him with such a professional spirit.

RESULT: The patient did not have to wait until a 24/7 RN arrived from another location. The clerical staff demonstrated a sense of urgency to facilitate the care of this patient. In over 30 plus years of nursing, I have never observed clerical staff this physically involved in assisting a patient. Later, when the lab work was all drawn, the same two clerks came out to assist the 24/7 staff again in facilitating this very difficult patient transfer. I felt these two ladies went above and beyond the call of duty in this unique case and deserve special recognition and award.

CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE

On Sunday, June 22, 2014 my brother, sister-in-law, their two toddlers, and my 10 year old daughter went to a birthday pool party. My daughter came home the next day after school and had much to tell me about the day before but it wasn’t because of all the kids she had to play with or how wonderful the party was but because a 5 year old little girl nearly drown in the pool that day.

She described the scene where there were adults everywhere, a lot of kids in the pool and a lot of noise around. All of the sudden someone noticed a little girl on the bottom of the pool. Someone quickly pulled her out and my daughter told me she wasn’t moving. My brother quickly ran to get my sister-in-law who is a nurse at Eisenhower Medical Center. When she got there her training and emergency response skills kicked into full gear and my daughter said that she gave the baby CPR and water came out of the little girls’ mouth. My daughter said that she had never seen anything like it; the little girl was awake and just staring into the sky. Shortly after my sister-in-law revived the little girl the ambulance came and took her to the hospital. My daughter said that the little girl’s mom was screaming and crying as she wanted her to be ok.

I am writing this letter to you because my family and I are proud of my sister-in-law, Erica McNeel, R.N. She is an example of how a nurses training can save the life of an individual, a role model for being community member, a mother and wife, and the kind of employee that Eisenhower Medical Center is lucky to have on their staff.

HEALING ENVIRONMENT

AWARDED TO: Manzoor Kazi, MDRECOGNIZED BY: Bernadette Heavey

SITUATION/TASK: A patient on 4 East came to Eisenhower Medical Center with many challenges. He was a high functioning man with special needs, with that said he was able to make all decisions for himself. His medical condition and the need for higher care surgery meant that he had to be transferred to Loma Linda.

Action: During his stay at Eisenhower Medical Center he was under the care of Dr. Kazi even though the patient understood a lot of his medical condition and how ill he was, Dr. Kazi would come every day and would always explain in detail the new plans and outcomes.

Result: Because Dr. Kazi was so compassionate, so caring and prayed with the patient, it made his stay at Eisenhower Medical Center more bearable due to how ill he was. The patient would often talk and sometimes he would cry about the kindness he felt from Dr. Kazi.

EFFICIENCY

AWARDED TO: Ali TourkamanRECOGNIZED BY: Laura Mohlenhoff

SITUATION/TASK: Ali noticed that the hospital’s March electric bill seemed higher than usual.

ACTION: He began to research not only that month, but previous month’s bills, and contacted the electric company to discuss further.

RESULT: Thanks to Ali’s diligence and his investigation into our electric bills, Eisenhower was credited $500,000! This is an incredible savings that came at a great time for our organization.